


Tipping Point

by Siria



Category: DCU, Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-25
Updated: 2015-12-25
Packaged: 2018-05-09 09:08:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,325
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5534180
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Siria/pseuds/Siria
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kara receives an unusual, but festive, assignment.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tipping Point

**Author's Note:**

  * For [shoemaster](https://archiveofourown.org/users/shoemaster/gifts).



> A Yuletide treat for shoemaster :)

"Don't laugh," Kara said as she came out of the restroom. "I said don't laugh!"

"I'm sorry, that was unprofessional and uncalled for," James said, but his voice was still quivering with laughter. "Sorry, you look, uh… ideal for the part."

"I'm not even a reporter!" Kara said, throwing her hands up in frustration. "I'm an assistant! I book hotel rooms and arrange international conference calls and make sure that Ms Grant's Google Calendar is custom colour-coded the way she wants it! That's what I do and I'm good at it. Why did she have to pick _me_ for this?" 

"Well, you are the only one who could pull off that outfit," James said, folding his arms and leaning back against the wall. "I mean, I could try, but I'm pretty sure I'm not the right… height."

Kara felt her cheeks heat, in part because she was pretty sure that was innuendo of some sort, but also because her traitorous brain insisted on presenting her with the image of James in a skirt. From there, it was a short mental hop to speculation as to what his thighs looked like, which was really not the kind of thing she should be thinking while standing outside the eleventh-floor restroom with a co-worker. _Co-worker_ , she reminded herself firmly. 

"Emmy could do it," she pointed out. "We're the same build and financial fraud is her beat. 'Beat' is journalist slang for the particular area she reports on, because of how she's an award-winning journalist and I'm not. Just—no, I'm going to change back."

James reached out and put a hand on her shoulder before she took more than a step. He couldn't have held her back if he'd wanted to, but his touch still made her come to a halt, her shoulders sagging. "Kara."

"I'm an adult with a college degree and a respectable job, and I'm wearing shoes that jingle," she mumbled, "and a holly wreath on my head."

"Don't forget the glitter," James said. 

"I can't," Kara said, turning to look at him. "It _itches_." Apparently dollar store glitter was one of the few things on Earth that Kryptonian skin wasn't impervious to.

"Look, Emmy's face is too well-known for her to be able to pull this off," James said, letting his hand drop. "Whereas your face isn't, even though it, you know… is."

Kara sighed. "My life is very strange."

" _This_ is your tipping point?"

"Apparently," Kara said. "My scale is a little, you know…" She waggled a hand. "Off."

"I get that this isn't exactly part of your usual day job," James said. "Either of them."

"Was it the candy cane skirt that gave it away?" Kara asked, hands on her hips. "Or the fact that I'm being asked to infiltrate a ring of embezzling Santas who're ripping off a department store chain?" 

" _But_ ," James continued, "Ms Grant has faith that you can pull this off, and she might be a little… well, you know she doesn't give praise where she doesn't think it's due. You got this."

Kara sighed and adjusted her glasses. "Maybe, it's just, this doesn't seem like a job for, you know…" She leaned in and whispered, " _You know who_."

James shrugged. "Seems like just the job for Kara Danvers, though."

"Oh no," Kara said, eyes widening, "no, no, _no_ , you can't just say stuff like that."

"Like what?"

"All charming and, you know… supportive."

"It's terrible of me," James said solemnly. "Pointing out that you've got a track record of doing whatever you put your mind to."

"Yeah. No! I mean, uh. Thank you," Kara said, looking away because his eyes were warm and he smelled really good and she was this close to doing something stupid right there in the hallway. James had only broken up with Lucy a few weeks before and he'd given her no signs that he… Well, Kara didn't want to be desperate _and_ dressed like a colour-blind elf, all in one day.

Maybe if she was lucky, something unimportant somewhere would blow up or derail or be invaded by very small and mostly harmless extra-terrestrials—nothing that would get anyone hurt, but just serious enough that she could make an excuse to get out of this hallway. 

"Well, I should be off," she said with as much cheer as she could muster. "You know, places to go, people to see, incriminating evidence to gather that will help put Santa in jail, oh no, just forget I said that—I mean, it's technically true, there's just no good way of putting that, is there—" 

"Kara."

"Just, you know, nerves, you may not have noticed this but sometimes when I get nervous I can run on a little bit and it can be difficult for me to st—"

"Kara." Slowly—slow enough that she would have had enough time to pull away even with human reflexes—James reached out and cupped her cheek in one hand. She really didn't want to pull away.

The sweep of his thumb against her cheekbone was so gentle that it made Kara's knees threaten to tremble in their striped stockings. "Oh boy," Kara breathed out, and then they were kissing: really kissing, _actually_ kissing. _Wha-pow!_ a little voice inside her head supplied giddily. The wave of warmth that rolled through her at the feel of James' slow kisses was as syrupy-sweet as the candy canes that decorated her outfit. James wrapped his arms around her waist and nipped gently at her lower lip. Inside her green velvet slippers, Kara's toes curled; she had to work very hard at not losing control and floating a couple inches off the ground.

"Wow," Kara said when the kiss finally ended. She blinked. Somehow, without her consciously doing it, her hands had ended up on James' broad chest. "I feel like I'm on the cover of a romance novel, just dressed like an elf." 

"Your face is covered in glitter," James said. He was smiling, that devastating curve of his mouth that Kara always, always wanted to kiss, and she could hear that his heart rate had kicked up in a gratifying sort of way.

"So are you," Kara said. "You've got it all…"

She tried to rub the red and gold glitter from James' mouth with the pad of one thumb, but that just made his eyes darken and he said, "If you keep doing that, we're going to end up doing things that will debauch that uniform."

"Uh huh," Kara said, feeling a sudden burst of bravery that had nothing to do with knowing she could punch through cement walls or stop a train in its tracks. "And what would it take to do that? Just asking out of curiosity because you know, we don't have elves where I'm from—"

Which was exactly the moment that Bob from Marketing chose to come out of the men's room. 

"And that is originally the great state of Ohio!" Kara said loudly as Bob walked past. "Oh, us Buckeyes, with our quirky non-elf-based holiday traditions, ahaha. Ha."

"You should probably get going," James said once Bob had vanished around the corner.

"Yes, I'm going to get right on that." Kara was dimly aware that she would probably have sounded more convincing if she could have torn her gaze away from James' mouth. "Time waits for no elf."

"You do have to take down Santa before Christmas Day, after all," James said, and laughed when Kara swatted him on the arm. 

"You're just lucky I like you a lot, mister," Kara said, readjusting her holly hairpiece, which had come a little askew. 

"Yeah," James said simply, "I am," and that was enough to make Kara kiss him again, briefly, before hurrying down the hall. 

"Rain check on the elf debauchery!" she called over her shoulder. The sound of James' answering laughter was enough to warm her down to the tips of her jingling toes.


End file.
